The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Salvia plant botanically known as Salvia guaranitica and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name ‘Black & Bloom’.
The new cultivar originated in a controlled breeding program in Arroyo Grande, Calif. during September 2009. The objective of the breeding program was the development of a Salvia cultivar having large violet-blue colored flowers and dark green colored foliage.
The new Salvia cultivar is the result of cross-pollination. The female (seed) parent of the new cultivar is ‘Costa Rican Blue’, not patented, characterized by its dark blue-colored flowers, dark green-colored foliage, and highly vigorous, upright growth habit. The male (pollen) parent of the new cultivar is ‘Black & Blue’, not patented, characterized by its medium violet-blue colored flowers, medium green-colored foliage, and moderately vigorous, upright growth habit. The new cultivar was discovered and selected as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the above stated cross-pollination during December 2010 in a controlled environment in Arroyo Grande, Calif.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal stem cuttings since December 2010 in Arroyo Grande, Calif. and West Chicago, Ill. has demonstrated that the new cultivar reproduces true to type with all of the characteristics, as herein described, firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of such asexual propagation.